UFT News and Views: RTC Ex Bd, TRS Election, Electronic Voting

Thursday, June 4, 2026

 

Busy days here at Ed Notes central. I was at the RTC Exec Bd meeting on Tuesday and following the TRS election and also talking to people in the UFT about the Mulgrew assault on competence to insure personal loyalty in the union, along with firings and threats of any hint of independent voices.

 

I'm back on chemo and had my second treatment yesterday - I'm on an every 2 week schedule. I even took my computer and worked on this item while I was there for a few hours and walking back to my apartment passed a street fair on E. 46 and look what I found: 

 

I came back to Rockaway in the afternoon and want to get this out so I can go outside and do some yard work. The steroids are still working and I'm hoping to have energy to video The Crucible at Rockaway Theatre Company tonight. I saw part of it the other night.

 

TRS Election

I've seen preliminary results of the TRS election but DOE has to release final totals. I can say Tom Brown won, David Kazansky finished second, showing some organizing muscle. Analyzing the results will be a fun thing to do and I have a lot more to report after talking to many people. The legacy caucuses in the ARISE coalition mostly sat out the election, except for some individuals. 

 

Unity/ARISE Reps Reject electronic voting

As for electronic voting, the bogus committee formed when I, as a member of the election committee in 2025, called for electronic voting, was turned down in exchange for a bogus committee, which I declared bullshit early on, predicting they would find ways to reject electronic voting, which is exactly what happened. The surprise was the two ARISE reps voting with Unity. The ABC reps put out a must read report that tears apart every Unity argument.

...many of the challenges associated with current methods, lost ballots, outdated addresses, inconsistent administration, chain-of-custody concerns, are exactly the kinds of problems modern electronic systems are designed to reduce. Secure platforms can incorporate verification, encryption, audit logs, and protections against duplicate voting in ways that strengthen accountability and transparency. But we didn’t seriously examine whether those tools could improve the process. Instead, the ARISE/Unity majority recommendation assumes that older methods are more reliable simply because they are more familiar. 

  UFT Election Task Force Minority Report..  

A Better Contract Jun 01, 2026

BTW, Unity had 10 members, ARISE 2 and ABC 3. You know, fair. 

 

Unity is now bragging they led the way on electronic voting - by saying no -- and by the way were joined in saying now by reps from the ARISE group - MORE and New Action/RA. These groups had supported our initiatives in 2022 and 2025.

 

I wrote on Nov. 28, 2024: UFT Election Committee

I pushed hard for an electronic voting option but naturally there are loads of roadblocks. This time they came up with the constitution wrinkle - some language in the constitution that says you have to use written ballots. Christina Gavin pointed out that written can also mean electronic.

Anyway, I pointed out the low vote totals for previous elections and handed out the ugly story on a chart. Like less than 20% of actives voted while 40% of retirees votes. After all the reasons we couldn't do electronic voting were pointed out I said I had raised this same reso 3 years ago and they promised to look into the issue but did nothing so we are back to ground zero.

 

I also pointed out that in previous elections the leadership could count on the retiree vote to carry them through, now with that vote in potential jeopardy, the leadership should want very much to increase in-service vote for their own protection. But don't expect any creative ideas to come from the moribund leadership. They looked like turtles turned on their backs. 

The best they could come up with was Queens District Rep James Vasquez with a reso to form a task force to "study" the issue. He also placed blame on the oppo people over the past 3 years for not bringing up the issue during that time. Duhhhh, James -- we know you guys never want electronic voting and you will forget all about your task force.

But Vasquez did not lose the opportunity to put out a dumb blog post attacking the opposition and blaming them for his own party's failures. That attack can be termed, "I'm scared shit we will lose and I will have to go back to the classroom and teach a full load instead of my one or two periods a day - and lose my second pension." 

Sure, Unity led the way on electronic voting -- right over the cliff.

 

Arthur reported on the process as reported on ABC:

They met only three times and closed the book on facing the issue. They didn’t bother to study the processes of other unions that used electronic voting successfully, let alone why so few of us vote. This looks like nothing more than a setup with a clear, predetermined outcome. Apathy is Unity’s best friend, and they won’t risk giving the 72% of members who don’t vote a voice.

Instead, Unity bosses will enable live voting only in Unity strongholds, where their paid patronage cult members can tacitly remind folks where and how to vote. Most disappointing is that the two ARISE members on the committee, MORE’s Olivia Swisher and Retiree Advocate’s Michael Shulman, voted with Unity. Shulman is also a leader of New Action, which has been pushing electronic voting for a decade or more. What happened? You’d have to ask him.

Only ABC members Chad Hamilton, Daniel Alicea and Katie Anskat voted no on Unity’s restrictive voting plan.  

 

RTC Exec Bd Meeting 

Yesterday I attended the RTC Exec Bd meeting. There are 25 people on the RTC EB and that includes the 10 officers. There are no Unity reps because RTC elections are winner take all - 25 EB and 300 delegates. Retiree Advocate, now an official caucus with $50 dues structure and a 15 member steering or organizing committee won that election in an alliance with Marianne Pizzitola. It was a great partnership. Shutting off the former 300 Unity delegates who gave Unity absolute dominance of the DA was a major outcome. Over the past year and a half that alliance has frayed which has made Unity bold with hope they can retake the chapter in next year's election. 

 

 

RTC replaces delegates as per its constitution 

Bennett Fischer, RTC CL:

The results are in from the RTC executive board vote to fill RTC delegate vacancies. There were 21 people running for 11 spots. The 11 winners are: Renee C. Airhuoyo, Jocelyn Brathwaite, Michael Broucum, Laura Calamuci, Chris Griffin, Peter Matsoukas, Sonia Silva, Carolyn Tacey, Linda Weissman, Hazel Fershleiser, and Amy Arundell. We will submit your names to the union for certification.

And therein lies a story. RA recruited 300 delegates to run with us two years ago and we wiped out Unity. I recruited about 30 people to run with us, including a former colleague who doesn't live in NYC. Unfortunately he came down with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and died in March 2025 but we know in October 2024 he wasn't interested in the DA and I notified people we needed to replace him, along with a few others I recruited who wanted to drop out and only ran as a favor to me because they never thought they would win.

Apparently some people at the UFT were telling Bennett we did not have the right to replace delegates even though former Unity delegates told us former RTC leader Tom Murphy just did it when there was a vacancy without even bothering to follow the RTC constitution which explicitly says the RTC Ex Bd nominates and votes on replacing elected positions. 

Only in the last few months has the RTC leadership gotten more aggressive on this issue. Not always transparent (the constitution says any RTC member may attend Ex Bd meetings but Bennett never announces that or sends out a link other than those who are aware), this time Bennett made an announcement at the RTC meeting and there were 21 candidates, including a few from Unity, one of whom I actually voted for, though I had nominated LeRoy Barr who told me if I did he'd buy me a drink but he declined the nomination - but still owes me a drink. 

Note that Amy Arundell did squeak into the final position (there was rank choice voting, indicating a level of hostility to her from the many ARISE connected RTC EB members. She should have been a slam dunk but the level of mistrust still reigns almost a year after the UFT election. In my opinion, the only way the Mulgrew administration continues to survive is due to this mistrust. Witness the story above about how ARISE voted with Unity. If Mulgrew was smart like Randi (which he isn't) he'd offer to work out a joint slate with ARISE in the next election. After all two of the 3 caucuses had a 12 year arrangement with Randi. (And by the way, Mulgrew broke that arrangement that helped Unity keep control of the high schools within 5 years of taking over --- see my recent blog on the level of incompetency - Mulgrewism is the UFT Version of Trumpism MAGA.

Bennett was not 100% this would be a slam dunk. Imagine if Unity refused to seat our democratically elected delegates, like the Mississippi delegation at the 1968 Democratic convention. I know the RTC leadership doesn't have the guts, but if we can get at least 50-100 people there to demand our delegates get seated and then walk out en masse if they don't. Good luck with that. And I say that in reference to the following item.

Arthur had a reso calling for us not to have to pay $180 a month for a prescription drug plan that included a petition some of us have been circulating that already has 6k signatures. 

The RTC Exec Bd supported the reso but there was push back on the petition, which has ties to ABC and you could sense the hostility from some of the leading lights with questions like "who is this going to?" and concerns over how the petition would be used. 

I'll let Arthur tell you about it.

RTC Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer moved my resolution, demanding the UFT pay for our prescription premiums, up to number one on our agenda. I was pretty happy about that, and I’ve posted it below. It’s a mixed victory though, as the RA folks all voted to drop the second resolved, decoupling it from our online petition that’s already garnered over six thousand signatures.

This is a botched opportunity to build on a solid foundation and reach further.

It’s outlandish to leave six thousand signatures on the table.

Retiree Advocate is repeating an error they made early on. When we were first elected, they willingly surrendered the official UFT Retiree page, which had 6,000 followers, to a Unity Patronage Cult Member. After two years, they haven’t managed to recruit half that number. In failing to link to our petition, they toss away 6,000 signatures we’ve collected.

ABC is all about organizing. In September, we will take that petition into school buildings and build on it. No one in service wants to pay these exorbitant premiums. Members will read it and say oh HELL no.

It will be good to pass the resolution, but the RTC action that comes along with it, I’m afraid, could be as lackluster as that for 1096.

There were several rationales offered. Bennett said when he first saw it he thought it may have been created by teenagers who wanted to make trouble. It wasn’t my turn to speak. I really wanted to say I’m not a teenager, but yes I want to make trouble. Making trouble, you know, is how you get stuff done.

If you don’t believe me, ask Marianne Pizzitola, without whom we’d all have an inferior Medicare “Advantage” plan right now.

Several people asked who wrote the petition. I kept raising my hand to show I did, and it took a while before people understood.  

Another objection was you can’t put a “hot link” on a resolution. Several people seemed to agree, but I was not among them. Better to start with 6,000 than zero. What could they be thinking?

RTC has not been great with petitions. When I tried to have them start a petition in support of 1096, the RTC Executive Board voted to “table” the suggestion. That’s a polite way of saying we are doing nothing, and indeed, aside from one strongly worded letter, mostly written by me, we have done nothing.

The comment about not putting links in a reso drove me wild because the link is an organizing tool and their mentality seems to be to lobby at the top - send strongly worded letters to Mulgrew - and not organize at the bottom. A reso that goes nowhere seems to satisfy them while many of us think a reso without an action component is a form of pounding your chest.  

End Winner Take All - Install a Proportional rep

Back in the 70s when we raised proportional representation as an alt to winner take all, Unity hacks (and Shanker) would say that's how Hitler came to power. Allowing space for a variety of viewpoints and giving people a voice leads directly to Hitler. Sure. Proportional representation is a version of the parliamentary system. If there are a 100 positions you portion them out to each group running based on their percentage. It's not all that simple but worth exploring. We all say when we run for UFT elections that if we were in power we would democratize the union but as we've seen with RTC, once you smell the roses of power, changing things to share with a group like Unity takes some of that nice smell away.

 

As oppo people we always opposed the winner take all approach and when we were winning 30% of the vote we felt we should one third of the delegates, the officers and the exec bd. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, we are in the drivers seat and it makes meetings like we just had easier without Unity attempts to undermine any initiative that counters the Mulgrew line. Unity people are free to attend the monthly RTC meetings and they have boldly tried to undermine any hint of variance from Unity orthodoxy. To distract the chapter from issues like protecting our healthcare or eliminating co-pays or relieving us of the over-expensive prescription drug plan they bring up resos on fair housing or protecting social security -- duhhhhh! Like just passing their reso will accomplish something.

 

Bennett has been fairly tolerant to Unity, even bending over backward to be fair and not act like Tom Murphy did. That extends to criticizing those of us who go on the attack against Unity playing games (Kumbaya - we are all union members). After all, the Unity goal is to get us out of office and go back to their own dictatorial running of the chapter. The Unity crew had asked to have their fair housing reso put on the main agenda so they wouldn't have to try for the new motion period -- oh how beautiful to see them whining while Mulgrew does the same thing to the oppo by filling the new motion period with mom and apple pie resos from the leadership. RTC EB discussed it, with Bennett and a few other voting to put their reso on the agenda but there were objections from people who wanted to amend their motion, with the result that they decided to write their own version and we did and voted to put that one on the main agenda. 

 

This seemed to outrage the Unity crowd. Like how dare we act like Mulgrew? To add insult, I spoke at the May RTC meeting and added a little wrinkle that I knew would enrage them further. To make housing more affordable, my amendment called for abolishing co-pays. Now you'd think I'd tossed a stink bomb. They demanded to have a speaker opposed after the question was called and Bennett didn't recognize them - which I felt was a mistake - let Unity make the case for co-pays (I say this as I am getting chemo and will be billed for a co-pay.)

 

Our platform called for some system of proportional rep - ending winner take all - and we have a constitution we can amend - and I'm sure the UFT leadership would put obstacles in the way since they expect to take back the chapter in next year's election. I should point out that in the 2021 election we asked the Unity people to give us 5 out of the 300 delegates so our 30% voters get some representation. They said NO. But I'm more generous. At the vote count in June 2024 when I watched the Unity people look crushed, I told one of their leaders if they had prop rep their 37% they would have gotten over 100 delegates. He gave me a sour look.

 

Since we won I have pushed our new RTC leadership - of which I am one (sort of) - to change the constitution to allow for prop rep but it didn't seem to be a priority - some seem to think they will win again next year. I think we are in a 50/50 split with Unity at this point - as long as we have Marianne with us, and given the RA crowd hostility to her, that is not a sure bet. 

 

Bennett did mention taking a look at this as a project for next year. With it being an election year and so much going on, it is unlikely that the process would be complete by the time the election takes place, especially since Unity would try to stop it - unless all retirees get together and remake the alliance with Marianne Pizzitola, at which point Unity might see they might lose and take a half loaf.

 

Stop Fraud. Not Dissent.

URGENT CALL TO ACTION: Tell Albany to Protect Union Democracy

A bill moving rapidly through the New York Legislature—Senate Bill S.9577-A, sponsored by Senator Jessica Ramos, and Assembly Bill A.10835-A, sponsored by Assemblymember Judy Griffin—is being promoted as a measure to stop fraudulent communications that falsely claim to represent labor unions and their representatives.

As detailed in The Wire’s investigation, the concern is not hypothetical.

In recent years, disputes have emerged involving UFTMembers.org, an independent publication critical of UFT union leadership. Other controversies have involved parody, satire, and internal political disputes within labor organizations. Reform caucuses and member advocacy groups routinely use union names to identify the members they represent. Independent newsletters, blogs, podcasts, and election campaigns frequently discuss union leadership, governance, elections, and policy decisions.

Those activities are not fraud.

They are part of union democracy.

Yet the legislation currently contains no explicit protections making clear that criticism, reform advocacy, parody, election-related communications, and internal organizing remain protected.

Read URGENT CALL and sign petition to amend the law.

Sign the Petition & Contact Legislators

👉 unionvoices.educators.nyc

Read Our Full Investigation

👉 thewire.educators.nyc/p/new-yorks-union-communications-bill

Stop Fraud. Not Dissent.

 

This bill smells to me - Unity etc and other union leadership are trying to brand internal critics as outside agitators, the classic manner of dictatorships. Remember how civil rights workers were branded as outside agitators. Our crew behind this amendment has had great outreach to explain it all.

 

Here is a link to Arthur's report of the RTC Ex Bd meeting and his petition.

Bits and Pieces: The good, the bad, and the absurd

Arthur Goldstein

Jun 03, 2026

UFT Welfare Fund Should Pay for Retiree Prescription Premiums

Whereas, UFT retirees are on fixed incomes, and,

Whereas, $180 per month is a high premium, and,

Whereas, many UFT retirees pay for other family members as well, and

Whereas, this rate went up a whopping 50% over a two-year period, and,

Whereas, this is a hardship on many UFT retirees, and

Whereas, other union Welfare Funds, including those of FDNY, NYPD and DC37 cover prescription premium costs for members, and

Whereas, UFT officers frequently mention “premium-free health insurance,” and,

Whereas, UFT officers speak of our Welfare Fund as the best in the country, be it therefore,

Resolved, that our Welfare Fund must cover retirees just as other Welfare Funds do, and be it further,

Resolved, that we actively support and encourage signing of the petition at https://stopchargingretirees.org/ demanding UFT Welfare Fund cover the costs of pharmacy insurance premiums for retired members.

At the suggestion of RTC Exec. Board member Alan Stein, who pointed out members get $900 back, I proposed the following addition:

Whereas this costs members a net $2160 a year, or members with spouses 4320 a year,

 

Mulgrewism is the UFT Version of Trumpism MAGA

Here is a follow-up to my recent comments on the TRS election.

TRS Election Count - 

  

Saturday. May 30, 2026

 

The more I delve into the inner workings of Unity Caucus, the more Trump-like actions emerge. Absolute loyalty is required. John Cornyn is only 99% supportive. Gone. David Kozansky and Ashley Rzonca were considered loyal enough to run and win on the Unity Exec Bd slate. Gone.

 

While we all see the Trump admin as a disaster, many see Mulgrew's 17 year tenure of the UFT as at the very least, a semi-disaster. Yet watch as henchpeople of both Trump and Mulgrew rush to praise them endlessly and claim it is the best of times while vilifying their critics.  

 

Trump is ruining the Republican Party by making it about loyalty to him, not the party and Mulgrew is ruining the Unity Caucus by making it about loyalty to him. Again, witness the firings of D. 30 rep Ashley Rzonca for not denouncing her friend and mentor Amy Arundell plus para rep Hector Ruiz Jr.  and David Kazansky. To show you how crazy and weird the Unity operation, Ashley and Hector were elected to the UFT Ex Bd on the Unity slate and David as an NYSUT and AFT delegate. Do you think that Ashley's long-time work as a DR in that district hasn't inspired loyalty from CLs and rank and file teachers, which we say in their demonstrations?

District 30 CLs Boycott UFT CL Training, Inside Un...

More Mulgrew Purges as District 30 Parents, Teache...

  

Similarities don't end as Trump's actions build an enormous opposition to him and Mulgrew helps broaden the base of the usual opposition to Unity by adding Unity refugees (witness Unity's lowest total ever 54% in the last election) and independents who used to shun the legacy op caucuses but are open to new groups that contain Unity refugees like ABC. From internal sources there are still a lot of resentful and pissed off Unity people, but they are frightened. Frightened over losing their job for hanging out with the wrong people is like water getting into rocks and freezing in winter and widening the cracks. Eventually the rocks break. 

I wrote about how Mulgrew met his goal of total control of the pension dept, one of the most respected areas of the UFT and an essential area to be well-run and free of politics for every UFT member who one day hopes to retire. If members are concerned that pension reps are chosen on the grounds of loyalty to Mulgrew instead of their level of competency, they may end up paying hundreds of dollars for private pension consultations. Already people have told me they are choosing that option. 

 

Look at the process I described about the formerly semi-autonomous pension dept. in my previous post:  

TRS Election Count 

- and the one before that: TRS Election Pre-Outcome Analysis 

 

One long-time Unity high level operative said: 

Mulgrew did the same thing with Teacher Center. In the old days, the teacher center budget was kept separate and very apart from the UFT. Some tension there. Once Evelyn DeJesus (who was promoted to AFT and is now second to Randi) and current VP Mary Vocarro got the reins, things changed. I believe Dave Hickey and Mulgrew now have their hands on those dollars. Same with the Welfare Fund that was long-time head Artie Pepper’s domain. Then Geoff Sorkin was made director (in name only).

Look through the dredges of why Mulgrew opposes the NYHealth Act --he's lose control of the Welfare Fund which would no longer be necessary. Have you noticed there was a big surplus there? How is it being used? They do worry about exposure. A few years ago when oppo people exposed this surplus and the poor dental plan, some minor improvements were made.

And don't forget dumping the old response system to calls for salesforce.

UFT Outsourcing to Salesforce Update - Workers sue UFT over being replaced by Salesforce as they slam Mulgrew - Jan. 6, 2022

Mulgrew and Bari Weiss, separated at birth? Insecure people at the top have a need for total control. And those not viewed as loyal enough, are fired. Leaders feel they have to put their mark even on successful operations. Bari Weiss is a Trump installment.

 

A recent article in the NYT: 

“60 Minutes” has a long tradition of autonomy within CBS News, a source of tension for generations of network executives. The show, which debuted in 1968, is still the country’s highest-rated television newsweekly, and its viewership this season was up 9 percent from the year before, according to Nielsen. Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on a brutal Salvadoran prison was pulled abruptly in December, said that CBS News and its top editor, Bari Weiss, had let her contract expire. Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist whose tenure has drawn enormous scrutiny, is readying a significant shake-up at “60 Minutes,” her network’s flagship news series. The fate of Tanya Simon, the program’s executive producer, is also unclear. Ms. Weiss is considering hiring an outside journalist to oversee or work alongside Ms. Simon. Her other signature initiative, the remaking of “CBS Evening News,” has suffered from low viewership and some embarrassing errors.

People in charge resent leaders of semi-independent groups, often run by strong figures that transcend changes at the top. 

 

In my research on the TRS elections even an old dog like me can learn something. Patterns of Mulgrew attempts to gain total control - politicizing what were semi-autonomous operations - meaning his loyalists in charge - emerged as long-time Unity contacts filled me in. 

 

Now as an outsider tracking Unity for the past 56 years, I assumed Unity was pretty monolithic but according to old-timers, Shanker and Feldman, once they found someone who could to the job, pretty much trusted them to pick, yes people loyal to the caucus, but also competent. And on the whole, members felt at least the union was competently run even by those who disagreed with the political direction. I can only remember one guy who was fired - for engaging in a sexual encounter at a NYSUT convention at the NY Hilton.

This brought to mind that soon after his first election in 2010 (after a year serving as Randi's replacement) Mulgrew took control of the NY Teacher operation:

Mulgrew Does the Purge: The Jim Callaghan Firing a...

UFT Firing of NY Teacher Reporter Jim Callaghan

 

Dots are getting connected in this old brain as I see how cracks in Unity have begun to emerge, cracks I've been waiting for over decades. BTW -- when Randi took control in the late 90s there was loads of resentment from the old-time warriors from the 60s's who had gone on 4 strikes and looked at Randi as an interloper.

 

Randi came out of nowhere in the mid-late 80s with no history of building the union and they put the recently deceased strongman Tom Pappas as her top lieutenant to coral the troops. Randi was so insecure she even reached out to me for some support and I, naively, thought there was a chance to reach a more progressive wing of Unity. No dice. It took me 3 years to realize it.

Randi began to make personal loyalty a factor in running the UFT. When there were multiple competent people to replace her (it was a no-brainer she was going to the AFT once Feldman came down with cancer) as UFT president, she plucked Mulgrew out of obscurity. How would the UFT had looked with universally respected Michelle Bodden as the leader? 

  

Mulgrew rose as Bodden faded as Randi's successor and she seemed too independent and smart to serve under him. It's worth sharing what I wrote then considering the unhappiness with him:

June 2008 - Michelle Bodden to Resign as UFT VP

As reported in an ednotes online exclusive, Michelle Bodden, who many people were betting would be Randi Weingarten's successor as UFT President, will take over the UFT's troubled elementary charter school.

We raised the question as to whether a UFT VP for elementary schools could be in that position. Now we have been informed that she has sent a letter telling people she will be resigning her VP position. (Will she also be resigning from Unity Caucus?)

The signs have been there for a long time (I saw signs in 2003) that Bodden was not in the running and I had to convince even people inside 52 Broadway that she would never head the UFT. Perhaps she was getting too popular. "She's really an educator," said one insider. "Not a politician like Randi. You can actually have a conversation with her about real things. Some people can't wait for Randi to be gone so we can start solving the real problems we face."

I won't go into the details, but long-time observers can tell a lot about the UFT by who stands where, what kinds of events people get to represent the UFT at, and other signs. The surprise appointment of Leroy Barr as UFT Staff Director in January made it clear that another African-American had superseded Michelle in the UFT hierarchy.

Well, they ended up with the Mulgrew administration creating more problems than he solved. And the more political he made what was already a political operation, the more problems were created - Medicare Advantage, anyone? Retiree and para vote in 2024? 54% Unity vote in 2025?

 

Under Mulgrew, even more insecure than Randi (and half as smart politically and intellectually)  and over his tenure, resentments grew until things broke in 2023 with the removal of Amy as Queens Borough Rep which led to Amy Arundell running against him last year and getting some key Unity people to join her, some behind the scenes. Mulgrew's vengeance was to fire or try to intimidate any staffer who had been friendly with Amy with a bunch of firings coming in June 2025.

 

Now the reaction of loyal Mulgrew Unity hacks has been to attack their critics and even threaten them with some court action due to what they claim is bogus use of the UFT logo. Prime in their sights is the ABC group, made up in part of Unity defectors, who come under the heaviest attacks for leaving the cult.

 

In the "great minds think alike" category, Arthur has a similar piece this morning: 

 

Separated at Birth: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Arthur Goldstein

May 30, 2026

TRS Election Count - No Final Results Until June 2 - re-edited May 28

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

The TRS election in the schools was held two weeks ago and the vote count started at 65 Court St. on Tuesday and adjourned. Final results are not expected until June 2. With a massive campaign and enormous pressure Unity-endorsed Tom Brown is expected to win. How big a win is the question. 

From what I'm hearing, Tom Brown wanted to retire but Mulgrew pushed him to run once David Kazansky announced. Mulgrew never seemed to have much love for David and felt running an unknown against him was risky and felt Brown was their best chance despite his being 75 and wanting out. Are they just kicking the can down the road because within another year Brown may well retire and they will have to do this all over again, meaning there could be two TRS elections next year?

When all votes are counted, each candidate receives a tally for each school with a breakdown of how many votes each candidate got. This information, if used correctly, can provide maps of each candidate's strengths and weaknesses. This has scared the Unity faithful, especially at the district rep level into hustling votes for Brown and they rode herd over their chapter leaders, especially during the petition period when Brown came in with 30k. (Only 1k was needed.) So yes they have run a very effective campaign.

While some people lament the fact that there were two non-Unity candidates running I take the long view and see this in a positive light. The prime directive is ending the Unity monopoly of the UFT and bringing a voice independent from Mulgrew to the TRS. Both David and Frank had been Unity loyalists and were fired for no "obvious reasons" but we know David was fired due to having once been a friend of Amy Arundel and Frank because he was going to run for TRS. They both still have people loyal to them in the Unity ranks who secretly support them. Any school with a Unity CL that doesn't back Brown will pay a price.

New information has been flowing in response to my last blog TRS Election Pre-Outcome Analysis, info that exposes the toxicity at the top of the Unity and UFT hierarchy. I've tried to piece together the story from various insider accounts and will publish more inf as the blanks get filled in. Therein lies a tale of Mulgrew and crew taking more control over the pension and TRS, an area formerly dominated by old timers Mel Aaronson and Sandy March, a process of Mulgrew's maniacal need to control everything over the past 10 years as loyalty to the leadership took precedence over competence. This is part 1. 

Recent History of TRS Elections

• 2014 Tom Brown replaces Mona Romain who retires.
• 2015 David Kazansky replaces Mel Aaronson who retires and recruited David. Mel had been the guru of pensions (though still with a staff job)
• 2016 Debby Penny replaces Sandy March who retires. Penny is Mulgrew's agent in the pension department and was brought in to gain control. With strong figures like Mel and Sandy March gone Mulgrew gets his shot at a complete takeover of the pension and TRS.
• 2021 - David re-elected but not before Mulgrew attempted to remove him but Randi and Mel intervene. 
• c. 2022 Victoria Lee replaced Debby Penny - no election.
• 2023 - Tom Brown runs unopposed.  
• 2024 - David Kazansky removed and replaced by Christina McGrath who defeated Ben Morgenrath in first TRS election in 40 years. At the time McGrath and Victoria Lee are close. David is given an AFT pension job at 52 with salary paid by Randi.
• 2025 - Victoria Lee wins re-election based on challenging Ben Morgenroth's petitions and winning on a technicality.  Her next election will be in 2028.
• 2026 - Tom Brown who wanted to retire but is pressured to run after David Kazansky announces a run. A leading pension consultant Frank Panebianco also runs. Both he and Kazansky had been full-time UFT employees until fired in 2025.
• 2027 - Christina McGrath is scheduled but she and Victoria Lee do not get along and if Lee maintains her dominance, she will look to dump McGrath unless Mulgrew backs her.

For decades there was no a TRS election because of only one candidate and whoever was chosen by UFT leadership to "run" was anointed with no one opposing. This bothered me - and others. Why let Unity get away with an easy win? Make them work for this patronage job. Two years ago, Mulgrew pulled David Kazansky from TRS after 9 years and installed an unknown, Christina McGrath, who even within Unity, caused people to scratch their heads. Apparently she was a friend of Victoria Lee. Rumors were that David was not the yes-man Mulgrew wanted at TRS. (My follow-up post to this one will get into the ugly details.) 

NOTE: The legacy caucuses don't see it that way and fundementally ignore TRS elections, a big mistake and indicative of their "not running to win" attitude.  

An informal independent group of us organized an election campaign with Ben Morgenroth as a way to force an election. And we learned a hell of a lot about the process - a trial run for future elections.

Last year everyone was busy with the UFT election and didn't pay much attention to the TRS election, though Ben Morgenroth ran but had his petitions challenged on a technicality and Vicky Lee celebrated at a UFT pension dept meeting bragging about her successful challenge after finding Ben had made a mark at the bottom of his petitions and shouting, "I won. It doesn't make a difference how you win as long as you win." 

This year's election is the most complex ever, with 3 candidates.  

David Kazansky, former 9-year TRS member beginning in 2015, removed by Mulgrew in 2024 and fired from his UFT job in June 2025 due to having been friends with Amy Arundel, and now teaching at an elementary school in the Bronx.

Frank Panebianco, former 13 year full-time pension rep, fired in 2025, now teaching in the Bronx. 

 

Tom Brown, incumbent since 2014,endorsed by UFT leadership and Unity Caucus. Brown told numerous people he intended to retire and not run again and urged Panebianco to run before he was pulled back into running by Mulgrew once David Kazansky announced he was running.  

 

Teacher Retiree System reps are elected by in-service active members of the TRS, which includes PBS and the CSA and a few other unions, but the UFT makes up the largest contingent, thus getting all 3 reps in staggered 3 year terms.

 

TRS reps are a UFT patronage job and elections are a threat to their control. They seem fine with letting decisions be made by financial people with no questioning them. Apparently David schooled himself and asked questions which may have annoyed some people at the top.

 

What does TRS teacher rep job entail and how are they paid? That is not exactly clear. There is a meeting every third Thursday of the month at TRS HQ. Attending these meetings are their only requirement. We get no info about those meetings or what is discussed or what decisions are made.

 

Are they employees of the city, not the UFT? Yet why do they work out of 52 Broadway and are on the UFT payroll and they work UFT 10-6 hours instead of the city 9-5? Some go to the schools to do pension clinics. Some choose to stay around HQ. 

 

What are their obligations? The only one seems to be to attend Thursday meetings.

 

From the TRS Site

Usually meets at 3:30 p.m. on approximately every third Thursday in each month. Composed of seven members as follows: Chairperson, Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) and the Comptroller, Ex Officio; two members appointed by the Mayor, one a member of the Panel for Educational Policy; three members of the Teachers’ Retirement Association elected from the contributors for terms of three years. No salary. Chair selected by Board Members. 

Note it says no salary. What decisions can they allowed to make? Who knows? 

 

Many of the trustees on the retirement boards do not receive an additional salary. They receive their regular salary from their city employer. However, the 3 trustees receive additional money from the UFT.

 

These are all issues to ponder. Part 2 will get into more detail on how Mulgrew gained total control over pension and TRS matters,

 

TRS Election Pre-Outcome Analysis

Good news. No matter the outcome of the TRS election, David Kazansky will continue to do his workshops. See his video here.

A Bronx school

Friday, May 15, 2026

I'm about to head into Manhattan to prep for my Murray Hill tour tomorrow at noon. May 16 is Park Ave Festival where they close the southbound streets from 42 to 34 St. There will be all sorts of goodies and booths, including IMx Pilates on 39th and Madison, my new favorite place to exercise. But first I wanted to get these comments out before I drown in trying to analyze the TRS election.

The DOE run TRS election is over after the May 13 balloting in the schools in an election run by the DOE - how competent do you think that was? Well, depending on the school and principal. Any candidate and voter, or those denied the opportunity to vote (the rule was to vote after school only - and many could not stay) can probably find loads of reasons to protest the way it was run in some schools. I do know from the ABC chats that the active Kazansky people made sure the elections were run as correctly as possible in their schools by feeding the principal the correct info and keeping a close eye on the process. Reports from Unity-dominated schools are sketchy but the intense pressure from the leadership to get a big turnout for Tom Brown worked in some places and failed in others. The ABC crew seems to have done an amazing job for Kazansky from results I've seen, with 80-90% for him in some schools while in Unity schools the results for Tom Brown are more in the 50s and 60s. Frank Panebianco is also getting some votes but I heard of only one school where he won outright.

A May 13 post by A Better Contract titled DAY & NIGHT chronicled a comparison of the May 11 TRS Zoom held by ABC with about 170 people with the Mulgrew Town Hall.

The author, HS CL Thomas Hasler, who I met in MORE many years ago and now seems to be aligned with ABC, made a number of excellent points and I urge you to read his comments which I will post in a follow-up. He captured the essence of how the ABC crew operates:

The difference between Monday night’s ABC Town Hall hosted by Amy Arundell, a true leader, and David Kazanksy, the candidate for TRS Trustee, was in stark contrast to yesterday’s “Town Hall” hosted by President Mulgrew and the official UFT. The difference could not have been more like DAY and NIGHT. At ABC’s Town Hall on Monday, members were allowed to ask questions on their own in an open forum. At Mulgrew’s meeting yesterday, it was the OPPOSITE.

I will point to one more of his comments:

Chapter Leaders were told to send a picture of the election tally sheet from their school to their UFT District Rep. This seems like an attempt to pressure UFT chapters to vote a certain way. Or it could be interpreted this way.

This seemed to confuse a retiree who has been an oppositionist for decades who asked:

Just curious.  How does the request from the UFT that C/Ls send  a picture of the school’s tally sheet to their district rep represent pressure to vote a certain way?  Should the DOE be the only ones who see the schools tally sheet?

My response:

It is a method for unity to hold CL accountable if Brown doesn’t do well. 

The firings seemed to work as district reps have pressured people to push Brown. 

They were never threatened with losing until recently so elections weren’t viewed as life or death matters. David and Frank candidates represent a real threat as former Unity with a following. 

But in the end all candidates get a tally sheet of all schools that will indicate unity strengths and weaknesses as it will for oppo movements. 

I had been asking for such tally sheets in general uft elections but have been turned down. 

What happens to Unity CLs in schools where Brown only wins in a close race or loses? I'm betting on district reps and those CL being called out. And I've heard the outcomes of some of these schools. 

[Excuse the redundancies in this piece since I've been writing it for 3 days and am sick of editing it.]

Officially, the legacy caucuses (RA, NAC, MORE) sat this one out. though some individuals from New Action were involved, including Ben Morgenroth who ran as David's alternate. ABC immediately backed David, who was not part of ABC, but hoping he will be in the future. People were pretty impressed with his talents. His and  Leah Linn videos made a splash. Between them they have a large following I believe over 10k. The ABC view is to challenge the ruling Unity caucus on all fronts, all the time, while the legacy groups are always calculating how to be "strategic," the sense of being too aggressive will turn off the "normies" (not me). My disagreement with them over the past few years is that the revolt of the retirees and the paras in the 2024 elections was a call for more militancy rather than pacivity. 

Some important history related to David given some backbiting over his past. Mulgrew removed him from TRS 2 years ago for being too independent and replaced him with a total incompetent loyalist. The so-called oppositionist backbiters neglect to see there is a bigger struggle to remove Unity from power that includes poaching dissatisfied Unityites. I have thought for 30 years that a break in Unity was crucial and that break is occurring. I think this election will bring over some Unity people who resented the pressure. 

MORE officially took a no endorsement position because their ideology calls for a focus in divesting in Israeli bonds - they are behind the Educators for Palestine group. But individuals in MORE did see the impact of defeating Mulgrew's hand-picked candidate. In fact, since the 2025 election, a faction of MORE has been reaching out and working with ABC and some results coming in from schools with MORE CLs and contingents have favored David. There is a split in MORE between those wanting to be involved in UFT elections and those who don't and given the 14% ARISE received in the election, the no-election faction may have gained some power. An alliance of the pro-election faction with ABC makes a lot of sense because RA and NAC do not offer a punch at the in-service level. In fact, such an alliance could actually win the 2028 UFT election.

Will the hate ABC ideologues that were connected to ARISE rise once again as a spoiler in two years to try to assure Unity control of the UFT? If MORE officially sits that one out and allows the pro-election faction to ally with ABC, there is less chance of that happening.

What the legacy caucuses don't get is that we must take every opportunity to force Unity to defend itself in the electoral arena and the yearly TRS election had been neglected for decades until 2 years ago and I'm proud to be part of the team (pre-ABC) to have helped organize these elections and I hope next year and the year after there will be candidates to try to take down the Unity TRS candidate under the control of the UFT leadership.

Despite the 3-way TRS race, people in ABC still give David a chance to win, though given the 30k petitions turned in by Unity for Brown (David vs Unity Goliath in TRS Election) it looked like the machine was in operation. Yet, from the reports I was getting, David was holding more than his own.

Let's see what the combined totals of David and Frank come out to. If over 40%, given the rigor Unity exerted, that is a danger sign for them and bodes well for defeating them. 

Don't forget, retirees and non-TRS members (ie BERS pension) can't vote, but PSC and CSA does vote. 

This election is a test of sorts of the strength of the leadership which went all out. If Brown gets 70-80% of the vote, it bodes well for the leadership --- signs Unity may have stopped the bleeding. If under 60%, danger signs will be blinking. It is also a test of  ABC, the only organized force in the UFT officially involved in the election.

ABC Rocks as threat to Unity hegemony grows

An important aspect of this election has been the re-emergence of the ABC network with new people like David and others, showing ABC is still alive and vibrant. Some schools with nominal Unity CLs came in heavily for David and ABC is hoping for more migrations. We've seen former Unity people who had been locked up behind a closed door emerging like birds released from their cages. The Mulgrew firings of competent people have not only hurt and degraded Unity, but have fueled an enthusiastic opposition based in ABC and affiliated independents and even some from the legacy caucuses. Yes, some Unity are still scared, but for how much longer? The flow from Unity to ABC will continue, which is why Unity leaders view ABC as the main threat, as do the legacy caucuses which also see ABC as a threat to their influence.

The ABC network seems resilient after a post-2025 election lull and as part of the "We Trust David" chat, it was thrilling to see the level of openness, cooperation and organization in operation. The chat also included non-ABC supporters from other caucuses. It has been so much more of a pleasant experience working with an open group like ABC compared to working with the legacy caucuses, MORE and Retiree Advocate, which was such a closed group after they won the RTC election and only recently opened up - to those willing to pay $50 dues to get a voice. ABC is free and open.

The ABC crew and affiliates has been fabulous for brainstorming and moving agendas. Results coming in showed the ABC crew did an amazing job in getting votes for David --- only if we had more people in more schools. Also even in some Unity schools Brown is not winning with 80 or more %. The third candidate definitely hurts but not too bad. 

The ABC operation seems to have found a formula for organizing -- it is open and flexible unlike the legacy caucuses.  (Another wing of ABC also affiliated with independents has also been activated around the way the RTC is being run by RA and the upcoming RTC chapter election, a dynamic group that more and more people are joining -- yes, it's free.)

From what I saw from reports coming in yesterday, in some Unity schools pushing the heavy Brown vote, there has been some counter reaction to Unity oppression. From one school: People were getting sick and tired of being pushed to back one candidate.

We heard of more pushbacks against Unity pressure. In another Unity school, the vote went overwhelmingly for David which means exactly what? Maybe more hidden cracks. The Mulgrew terror campaign can only go so far.

In schools with Unity CL where David won handily, I can just imagine a new wave of firings or demotions. Yes, the firings last June did work on some Unity people. One district rep who was called in and threatened has apparently learned his lesson by banning some CL who backed David from his communication group.

Frank Panebianco, who is very well-liked and respected by everyone, including the ABC crew, was fired because supposedly TRS rep Victoria Lee wanted him out of the way because he complained to LeRoy Barr over her bossiness. (She is supposedly not well liked). She complained to Mulgrew. Mulgrew fired Frank but then rethought it and tried to hire him back. 

Frank thought he had put in the time and loyalty and wanted the TRS position when Mulgrew removed Kazansky two years ago but was jumped over by no-nothing Christina McGrath who shit the bed even worse than Tom Brown at an RTC meeting. They ran Lee the next year for the position, which Frank felt he deserved, a slap in the face.

Frank was willing to come back but wanted a raise, to be the next trustee and work out of the Bronx. Mulgrew wouldn’t agree to those demands so rather than accept his old job back, chose to go back to teaching. Give him credit for that. 

A Unity HS CL with an after school job whined to the staff about so many not voting, blaming them. It was his job to get them to vote and he blames them.

And then there were complaints on why people couldn't vote.

NOTE: If you managed to wade through the mess above, you get the weekend off.

Retired Teacher Chapter Exec Bd meets gets sad news, Analysis of Texas Dem Primary - Surprise - Real Progressive Won, Is Iran winning?

The Kazansky/Brown race for TRS heating up as hundreds attend an ABC info zoom -- report coming soon. 

 

Respect Means Retirement Security... David Kazansky Mar 7

Monday, March 9, 2026

 

I attended the March 3rd (my birthday) Retiree Teacher Exec Bd meeting on Tuesday after rushing back from a weekend jaunt to attend The Philadelphia Flower Show, the nation's oldest and largest horticultural event, held annually since 1829. Most people I know think that I'm nuts and after attending the meeting I agree with them. 

 

There was an election taking place and I wanted to be there to stand up for the candidate I favored in a 4 way race. (She didn't win.) The RTC constitution gives the EB the right to replace any elected position, though when we try to replace the dozen delegates (out of the 300 we elected), the UFT says we can't -- you know, because they say we can't. We were told by a former Unity delegate that when they ran the chapter and had vacancies, Tom Murphy just replaced them. They make rules up as they go along.

 

The lack of aggressiveness by the RTC leadership only emboldens bullying by the UFT/Unity leadership. I think it goes beyond that and detect some fear by the ideologues in RA of adding new delegates who might not be pure enough ideologically --- but that's only my guess. One RTC Exec Bd member pointed out that adding a new batch of delegates would invigorate our contingent at the DA which has been shrinking to the point of irrelevancy, perhaps the major failure of the RA hierarchy.

 

There was an opening on the RTC Executive Board due to the resignation recently of Daniel Harkavy due to an illness - cancer that seemed to escalate quickly. We found out on Tuesday that he died on February 20, a real shock to many of us who had enormous respect for Daniel for his sense of humor, smarts, and judicious non-partisan advice. I wanted to touch base with him after he resigned and am kicking myself for failing to do so. Daniel taught chemistry at Brooklyn Tech for 26 years. 

 

At the RTC EB meeting last Tuesday, Arthur Goldstein, who got to know Daniel, paid an impassioned tribute to Daniel and followed that up with this post.

RIP Daniel: Daniel Harkavy passes:  Arthur Goldstein- Mar 06, 2026

I'm not sure how Daniel came to be part of the RTC EB - I didn't know him before. He tried to steer a neutral course during the UFT election follies last year, signing petitions for both ABC and ARISE, and attempted to run with both slates but was made to choose by ARISE. He ran with ABC because he felt ABC had the better chance to win but remained cordial with everyone. 

 

When ABC had a petition signing in Bayside, where Daniel lived, he showed up and met Arthur and was introduced to one of our officer candidates who is also a chemistry teacher who graduated from Brooklyn Tech a year before Daniel began teaching there. He was thrilled to meet her. 

 

For someone I barely knew, his passing was especially upsetting because when he posted he was in the hospital I intended to touch base with him as a fellow cancer patient who went through some tough days over the 6 months of chemo. To have been stricken with a deadly cancer at such a relatively young age - he was 63 but count the time leading up to it - is so sad and makes me feel relatively lucky at having reached 81 recently and still be fairly mobile and active. 

 

I barely knew him but will miss him.

 

Daniel was open and respected for openly saying that if he felt ARISE had the better chance he would have run with them. The ABC crew respected him for that view and we felt that if he would have been allowed to run on the ARISE too, he would have gotten 46% of the vote, the highest total of any non-Unity person in history. 

 

I advocated running hundreds of people on both slates and might have actually sneaked a few people in. At some point the people who made that decision for ARISE need to be held accountable. Actually, the entire leadership of ARISE.

 

As to the election for his replacement, as I said, my favored candidate who also ran with the ABC slate did not win and lost to someone who had no connection to the movement we built among retirees over the past 5 years. A very nice guy, by the way. But a message was sent by the New Action/Retiree Advocate dominated RTC EB and the result is not a positive development for a united front in the 2027 RTC chapter election. Details next time.

 

 =======

 

The Texas Primaries

I'm a political nerd and follow both mainstream and alt media.

 

On the broader political front,  I get some of the best political analysis at breaking points, an alt media outpost that includes the left and the right, with the great reporter Ryan Grim and Krystal Ball representing the left. But it's always good to see what the right is thinking, though this is not MAGA right. 

 

I've been getting about 10 messages a day from Talarico -- I want to send him some money, but then I will get 20 messages a day. 

 

Wednesday's discussion of the Talarico/Crockett primary was fascinating and for a deep dive I urge you to check it out: https://youtu.be/5ttTwSR60L0?si=ms2W31EGQwDyprjb 

 

Not knowing enough beforehand, I did not have a dog in the race, other than the sense that Talarico had a better chance to win than Crockett, whose performance-based political acts has never resonated with me. Some view her as squad-oriented but and someone said to me she was like AOC. Far from AOC or the squad, she is more cultural than economic left. And in fact it turns out according to the analysys below that Talarico made the better economic left case.

 

Mainstream media painted the race as the left (Crockett) vs the center (Talarico) and therefore a lesson for Dems to stay to the center. This analysis actually paints Talarico as a sort of left because he ran an anti-corporate Bernie type campaign, albeit with some religious twists while Crocket despite her performativeness actually avoided the wealthy vs the rest of us and was more of a Dem cultural

 

   

 

Republicans already spent more than $71 million to try to push Cornyn over the finish line, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm. But all that money got him to only 42% in the primary against Paxton, who has been impeached, indicted, and rocked by multiple cheating scandals. 

• The New Yorker: In the Texas Primaries, a Good Night for James Talarico, and a Bad One for John Cornyn  

Cornyn, still the establishment conservative, raised roughly sixty-nine million dollars; Paxton just four million. In the final stages of the primary, the incumbent, still trailing in the polls, released a spot for the ages, which opened, “It’s voting time, so let’s cut through the bullshit. Crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife. She’s divorcing him on Biblical grounds.” Paxton’s camp deployed the candidate’s daughter in a last-minute response ad, and called Cornyn “a desperate shell of a man clinging to power.” But, on Tuesday night, neither candidate managed to get fifty per cent of the vote, which means they’ll face off again in a runoff, in May. In theory, Republican voters might have been ready to throw out the last vestiges of the pre-Trump party. But not for Ken Paxton. At least not yet.

Crockett’s challenge to Talarico had less to do with ideological difference than with style—a somewhat repetitive January debate between the two candidates kept returning not to policy but to the question of whether it was better to establish common ground with some conservatives in the hope of winning their votes (Talarico’s position) or simply to rally your side by making clear what you opposed (Crockett’s). Crockett seemed to see enemies everywhere, and closed her campaign lashing out at certain political consultants and reporters. The congresswoman’s team expelled Elaine Godfrey, who’d published a critical profile of the candidate in The Atlantic, from an event for being a “top-notch hater.” The resulting back-and-forth on social media, between the campaign and its liberal critics, consumed much of the race’s final days. 

Who's Winning the Iran War? A surprising view differs from mainstream media from the left and the right.

 

The left view - Ryan X Tim Dillon: https://youtu.be/3lTk2SOHeVM?si=TR1ZbwOmoACNLiI5

The right view from Saagar and Tucker on Iran winning - Saagar X Tucker: https://youtu.be/Dl78cDjOIRM?si=CTGDRVtSzXWTJYSJ